~ TRYING TO MAKE SENSE OF A POST-REALITY WORLD

Category Archives: Opinion

If Bernie Sanders wants to turn what has been a very impressive campaign into a power base in the US Senate during the next administration and maintain his career and reputation going forward, he damned well better start negotiating with the Democratic Establishment now. That’s not his preference and will appall the True Believers but it is his last road to having an impact on the future of this country. . He could start with asking his wife, one of the most annoying surrogates ever, to go home and file their damned income tax return. He says the delay is that she does the return and has been busy on the campaign trail. If their entire income is his Senatorial salary as he says, how long could that take? One source of income is pretty damned basic so, what, she is gone for a day, maybe two? Give me a break. Right now his excuse on that very simple, and really not very important issue, puts him in the same room with the Trumpster. He should have fled those premises long ago and for every day he stays there, some informed observers, and I include me in that group, wonder what is going on.

Quite honestly, all the Bernie Bros. aside, his ultimate place in history is on the line and the causes he supports will be seriously wounded if he does not make wise choices. He could start tomorrow by saying clearly and definitively to his followers that, no, he cannot possibly win the the nomination outright and the whole idea of talking the Super Delegates into changing over to support him is silly and attempting to win that way goes against the fundamental beliefs that supposedly drive his campaign. Time to stop shouting and man up.

“We are living in times when people cling to the wreckage of their sinking orthodoxies as if to salvation and aggressively continue to promote the very ideas which have led to their predicament. All we can hope, I suppose, is that, in their enthusiasm for self-destruction, they don’t drag the rest of us down with them. Violent grinning, canned orchestral music, empathic neighbourliness, vigorous hand-clapping, enthusiastic show-business presentation, and simplified hymn-singing is now substitute for real spiritual substance and that, it seems to me, demonstrates the crisis of many Christian churches at present…”

That was written twenty years ago (1996) by British writer Michael Moorcock for the 30th anniversary edition of his brilliant novel, Behold the Man. It is the story of Karl Glogauer, a man who travels from the year 1970 in a time machine to 28 AD, where he hopes to meet the historical Jesus of Nazareth. Behold the Man, firmly planted on my list of the ten best SF novels ever, won the 1967 Nebula Award a year after its initial publication.

The comment above was written in context of how the original had been received when first published, which included strong, positive reviews in the religious press in his home country. It was only when the book made its way to these shores that he began to receive death threats, “mostly from the Bible Belt, almost all from Texas.”

The strain of madness in our culture is nothing new. What is new is that it has bubbled to the surface and no one can pretend it doesn’t exist any longer. Some will try, of course, as we are not seeing from the liberal media elite (that great, non-existent bogyman of the Right) and the scared-to-death, chickens-with-their-heads-cut-off crowd that is residue of the GOP Establishment. The latter are getting what they deserve. Sadly, though, what they sowed we all are reaping.

(This post already appeared on The Book of Face and, because I have been beaten down and crushed and otherwise rendered unresponsive while trying to control my various relationships between this site and that one, not to mention Twitter Tweeting, it likely is doing so a second or, in the later case, third time. Apologies all around.)

Hillary Clinton brazenly takes on voter suppression and names names of GOP wannabe governors who embrace same. “Liberal” press goes into shock trying to figure out how to turn it into “both sides do it” meme . NY Times calls meeting of the in-house unit on that approach headed by David Brooks, with special contributions by Thomas L. Friedman ( Maureen Dowd cannot attend because she has the vapors). WashPo’s Jennifer Rubin breaks down completely but no one notices for a long time because, who can tell?

Meanwhile, on the less “Liberal” press front (special points if you can tell the difference), Fox News arranges massive interview with every governor they say was falsely accused, appointing Megan Kelly the “hard question” interviewer to high fives all round. Sarah Palin posted a 37 minute video saying all GOP governors should resign in protest because why not, it worked for her. 14 crazy members of the House you have never heard of announce their candidacies for GOP presidential nomination and Koch brothers & Sheldon Edelson each say they will support some or all of them with millions, then get into screaming argument about who has to fund Lindsay Graham and Ben Johnson.

I cannot swear that all these things happened but I would definitely not swear that they did not happen.

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I posted this on Facebook an hour or so ago (and one day soon I will get this damned blog and that damned site coordinated) and figure I ought to share it here:

The President of the United States today sat down for an exclusive interview with Chris Matthews, thus demeaning himself and his office. I guess I liken this to the way Dick Cheney played Tim Russert like a drum and that makes it ever more embarrassing.

Back in the golden years when a Real ‘Murrican was in the White House rather than a Kenyan Pretender, fine comics artist Rob Davis and I chronicled his unelected administration in a weekly series of cartoons we called The Dubya Chronicles. I thought it would be instructive all these years later to reproduce our 2006 entry because it is a reminder that, while things are surely better now, the fact is that whoever sits in the Oval Office (or the Veep’s office pulling the strings) is gonna use that power in ways many of us find unacceptable.

(The cartoon is animated so you have to click above to see it.)

Another example? return with us to the golden days of the Great Penis Hunt (though that’s not mentioned in the piece, which is one of my weekly columns for the short-lived Main Line edition of Philadelphia Weekly). From the content, I’d assume this was published in early 1995, not too long after the 1994 election in which the GOP took over the House and it appeared the Clinton Presidency might be a one-term affair.

There’s an ancient Chinese curse: may you live in interesting times. I don’t know who it was around here who irritated an old Chinese (though I have to suspect Ingram, when it gets right down to it), and I don’t know how interesting this era is, but damned if it isn’t annoying.

It has come to my attention, for example, that Rush Limbaugh, paragon of the new media elite, has some 20 million listeners daily. A recent survey of the American public by a British newspaper reveals the intriguing fact that there are also just about 20 million among us who do not believe that man ever walked on the moon. Could these be the same 20 million, do you suppose? Coincidence or confluence, you decide.

I have no polling data to support this one, but I’d think it fair to say, based upon all available evidence, that the “moderates” among the Anti-Choice folks are now that benighted few who still believe that a woman seeking an abortion is entitled to a quick trial before she is summarily executed. Everyone else who supports a woman’s rights should, of course, be shot on sight.

Down Washington way, the First Lady invited a whole passel of women writers over to the White House for lunch and–after ever so coyly allowing herself to be coaxed onto the record–asked them to help her figure out why folks just can’t get it through their heads that she’s really just the girl next door. Newt’s Mom was unable to attend, being busy running from talk show to talk show to blurt out the B-word again and again to prove how that nasty Connie Chung took advantage of her, poor doddering old soul that she is. Good heavens, the woman is all of 68; it’s a wonder she’s still walking.

Meanwhile, upstairs at the Presidential digs, President For Now William Jefferson (“Ich bein ein Republican”) Clinton is reportedly confused as to why so many folks can’t figure out what he stands for. Some days he thinks it’s because of this, some days because of that, some days maybe both. Usually the White House staff is around to help him, but they’re all busy searching high and low for whoever it was who had the bright idea that the Prez ought to be pictured holding up two dead ducks on a Georgia hunting trip. Brilliant symbolism that.

Of course, the First Family and their ilk are essentially the political fringe movement at this point. The real action is over in the House, where the Coronation of Newt set hearts a-flutter all over the land two weeks ago. I couldn’t watch the whole thing but I was lucky enough to catch Jon Fox stammering nervously on C-Span while he acted as the point man on the legislation to establish a “super majority” requirement for any proposals to raise income taxes during this Congress.

Since our very own elected representative was out front on this one, I figure we ought to stop here and take a look at it. It’ll now take 60 votes out of 100 to raise income tax rates. All other taxes, of course, can still be raised by a simple majority vote. Aside from the fact that this is probably unconstitutional, it means that the only tax which impacts on the wealthy as much as it does the poor and middle class is now a protected species. Don’t mention this in public, by the way, or you’ll be charged with fomenting “class warfare.” Then again, that three-fifths vote limit only applies to raising income tax “rates”; a simple majority can still vote to eliminate exemptions, or lower deductions, which would effectively raise income taxes anyway. Hmmm….

Understand, things aren’t all bad. Here, for example, is my favorite 1995 moment so far. Speaker Newt told the press last week that he and his acolytes should not be held to the “details” of the Contract With America. “We’re not going to be trapped into doing something dumb just so you can all say we’re consistent,” he said. He was unfortunately unable to stay around and discuss this interesting implications of this statement as he had to rush off and fire his very own personal historian who, it turns out, is on record saying that the Nazis and Ku Klux Klan haven’t gotten a fair shake in history. Somewhere, Pat Buchanan is smiling.

“Details” are on the mind of Representative Dick Armey as well. He’s the one from Texas who isn’t Phil Gramm, a proponent of a flat income tax and eliminating the minimum wage. Republicans don’t dare reveal how they might cut the budget to meet the requirements of the Balanced Budget Amendment, Armey says, because then nobody would vote for the Amendment. Makes sense to me.

Back before times got so interesting, we had that nice George Bush and his Thousand Points of Light. Remember? Well, as it turns out, according to an examination of the financial records of the Points of Light Foundation by the Los Angeles Times, only 11 percent of all the funds raised by the organization actually went to charity and volunteer work; the rest was eaten up by such important things as salaries, promotions, travel and consultant fees. And darned if more than half the overall budget, $26.6 million, wasn’t from federal funds. And liberals said private charity wouldn’t work.

So why is it even on the so-called table in the current negotiations, much less the apparent key to it all? Why is a Democratic president seemingly intent on a) making cuts that will be harmful to seniors who depend on SS as their primary income source and which will forever more make him the man responsible for cutting benefits (you’ll hear that from the GOP as soon as the 2014 elections) and b) worse yet, participating in the process of implicitly redefining SS as an “entitlement” and thus forevermore an acceptable target for “savings” which must be made so as not to upset the 1% and our corporate masters?

How can a man as smart as Barack Obama appears to be most of the time constantly give up the bargaining advantage when doesn’t have to? Why should he, or we, be concerned for a single second whether or not John Boehner can survive as Speaker if he doesn’t get some sort of “red meat” to toss to his mostly insane GOP caucus? Yes, maybe this sort of foolishness might mean a slightly better overall deal that what might be possible if we go over that imaginary cliff (and that is by no means certain), but what is the point of winning in politics if you’re afraid to claim it as a mandate no matter how small the margin (see George W. Bush, who lost the popular vote)?

This kind of dithering and compromise for the sake of compromise (a process which makes the increasingly irrelevant Washington establishment and its press courtiers happy, and god forbid they should be out of sorts; many of them are still recovering from those “hillbilly” Clintons being in what they think of as “their” White House, much less a Black family.) is why we are not going to get anything close to meaningful gun legislation, possibly no gun legislation at all. The public attention span is exactly suited for a Twitter world. By the time we get the first session of the new Congress and Sen. Feinstein’s proposal, the moment will have passed, the anger will have soothed and, hey, Super Bowl!

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I have just unfriended only the second person ever. My feeling is, and remains, that if I am going to spout off in this public space, I should not try to shut down those who disagree with me.

But there are limits.

The argument that “if you take away our guns, only criminals will have guns” is meaningless in these murder tragedies or the shooting of a Congresswoman because the shooters are not “criminals,” they are mentally unstable “normal” people. Their actions are clear evidence that access to weapons of a certain kind, weapons which have nothing to do with hunting or sports shooting, is an issue we should and must deal with.

The argument that “if only they had guns, they would have stopped him” is ludicrous. Who is “they”? The teachers,? The principal/ The kids? Everybody? And when this lunatic blasts his way through the door with an automatic weapon, dressed in body armor, and starts shooting, what then? Who is immediately prepared to react? What will be the results of a suddenly erupting gun battle in a closed space between a madman and a panicked amateur while potential victims cower in fear? A few minutes calm thought leaves the premise in tatters.

There are people who make those arguments and I no longer even try to argue with them. Nor do I do anything to limit their access to or ability to respond to anything I post. But when someone starts ranting about how automobiles kill people too, I cannot handle it. The person I unfriended is someone I know personally and whom I like (as was the first person I unfriended, primarily because he would just never stop–long after I and everybody else had left a conversation, he was still posting on and on–and because he would enter almost every conversation with a political agenda).

Nobody should be arguing to ban guns across the board at this point. That is an untenable position, but somebody, a lot of somebodys, should be trying, in every way possible, to bring some common sense to this issue about access and weaponry which is beyond the pale and be willing to face up to the NRA and the political maelstrom that such an attempt will surely inspire.

In the midst of all our tears and sorrows this weekend, we should also feel a rising tide of embarrassment and disgust. Let those 20 children and the six adults who died trying to save them become a beacon leading this violent nation toward a more civilized future.

NOTE:This post has been edited and expanded slightly from the original to rectify typographical errors and clarify the arguments.

Brothers and sisters: Before we open our hymnals and sing the many grim verses of “Now Cometh the Hard Part,” the quadrennial post-Election Day dirge, the congregation is kindly requested to indulge in a brief interlude of soul-replenishing joy. Go ahead. Relax those shoulders. Breathe. Linger a while over the night of Tuesday, November 6th. Congratulate the President on his reëlection. Play a clip of his stirring acceptance speech. Watch his handsome family waving to the jubilant crowd. Wave back. Replay in your mind, just for fun, the moment when Fox News’s Megyn Kelly rebuked Karl Rove for his refusal to accept the verdict in Ohio (“Is this just the math that you do as a Republican to make yourself feel better or is this real?”), before making her long trek to the reality-based precincts of the Decision Desk. Send a thank-you note to Bill Clinton, to the determined, foot-sore voters of south Florida, and—what the hell—to Chris Christie. Finally, bid a fond farewell to some of the gargoyles who have haunted your sleep in these many months of incessant cable-gazing, Web-cruising, and poll-checking. See ya later, Brothers Koch! Shalom, Sheldon Adelson! Get a new slide rule, George Gallup and Scott Rasmussen! Hasta la vista, Tea Party! Ciao for now, Donald Trump! Feel better? Good, because the celebration is officially over.

The remainder of the piece is about the need for the Obama Administration to walk the walk after all the talk about Global Warming, and that’s that part you need to read.

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Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, has gotten this far with a guile that allows him to say whatever he thinks an audience wants to hear. But he has tied himself to the ultraconservative forces that control the Republican Party and embraced their policies, including reckless budget cuts and 30-year-old, discredited trickle-down ideas. Voters may still be confused about Mr. Romney’s true identity, but they know the Republican Party, and a Romney administration would reflect its agenda. Mr. Romney’s choice of Representative Paul Ryan as his running mate says volumes about that.

[ … ]

In the poisonous atmosphere of this campaign, it may be easy to overlook Mr. Obama’s many important achievements, including carrying out the economic stimulus, saving the auto industry, improving fuel efficiency standards, and making two very fine Supreme Court appointments.

[ … ]

Mr. Obama has achieved the most sweeping health care reforms since the passage of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965. The reform law takes a big step toward universal health coverage, a final piece in the social contract.

[ … ]

Mr. Obama prevented another Great Depression. The economy was cratering when he took office in January 2009. By that June it was growing, and it has been ever since (although at a rate that disappoints everyone), thanks in large part to interventions Mr. Obama championed, like the $840 billion stimulus bill. Republicans say it failed, but it created and preserved 2.5 million jobs and prevented unemployment from reaching 12 percent. Poverty would have been much worse without the billions spent on Medicaid, food stamps and jobless benefits.

Last year, Mr. Obama introduced a jobs plan that included spending on school renovations, repair projects for roads and bridges, aid to states, and more. It was stymied by Republicans. Contrary to Mr. Romney’s claims, Mr. Obama has done good things for small businesses — like pushing through more tax write-offs for new equipment and temporary tax cuts for hiring the unemployed.

[ … ]

The future of the nation’s highest court hangs in the balance in this election — and along with it, reproductive freedom for American women and voting rights for all, to name just two issues. Whoever is president after the election will make at least one appointment to the court, and many more to federal appeals courts and district courts. Mr. Obama, who appointed the impressive Justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor, understands how severely damaging conservative activism has been in areas like campaign spending. He would appoint justices and judges who understand that landmarks of equality like the Voting Rights Act must be defended against the steady attack from the right.

Mr. Romney’s campaign Web site says he will “nominate judges in the mold of Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Scalia, Thomas and Alito,” among the most conservative justices in the past 75 years. There is no doubt that he would appoint justices who would seek to overturn Roe v. Wade.

[ … ]

For these and many other reasons, we enthusiastically endorse President Barack Obama for a second term, and express the hope that his victory will be accompanied by a new Congress willing to work for policies that Americans need.

Obama succeeded George W. Bush, a two-term President whose misbegotten legacy, measured in the money it squandered and the misery it inflicted, has become only more evident with time. Bush left behind an America in dire condition and with a degraded reputation. On Inauguration Day, the United States was in a downward financial spiral brought on by predatory lending, legally sanctioned greed and pyramid schemes, an economic policy geared to the priorities and the comforts of what soon came to be called “the one per cent,” and deregulation that began before the Bush Presidency. In 2008 alone, more than two and a half million jobs were lost—up to three-quarters of a million jobs a month. The gross domestic product was shrinking at a rate of nine per cent. Housing prices collapsed. Credit markets collapsed. The stock market collapsed—and, with it, the retirement prospects of millions. Foreclosures and evictions were ubiquitous; whole neighborhoods and towns emptied. The automobile industry appeared to be headed for bankruptcy. Banks as large as Lehman Brothers were dead, and other banks were foundering. It was a crisis of historic dimensions and global ramifications. However skillful the management in Washington, the slump was bound to last longer than any since the Great Depression.

At the same time, the United States was in the midst of the grinding and unnecessary war in Iraq, which killed a hundred thousand Iraqis and four thousand Americans, and depleted the federal coffers. The political and moral damage of Bush’s duplicitous rush to war rivalled the conflict’s price in blood and treasure. America’s standing in the world was further compromised by the torture of prisoners and by illegal surveillance at home. Al Qaeda, which, on September 11, 2001, killed three thousand people on American soil, was still strong. Its leader, Osama bin Laden, was, despite a global manhunt, living securely in Abbottabad, a verdant retreat near Islamabad.

As if to intensify the sense of crisis, on Inauguration Day the national-security apparatus informed the President-elect that Al Shabaab, a Somali affiliate of the Al Qaeda network, had sent terrorists across the Canadian border and was planning an attack on the Mall, possibly on Obama himself. That danger proved illusory; the others proved to be more onerous than anyone had imagined. The satirical paper The Onion came up with a painfully apt inaugural headline: “BLACK MAN GIVEN NATION’S WORST JOB.

Prowling through the archives just now looking for a post I vaguely remember which, if it exists, has some information that would brighten up a column I am trying to write, I ran across this instead. Enjoy. Or ignore. Whatever … Continue reading →

So this is something I did today because I felt like doing something today in lieu of straightening up the mess that is my desk. I mean, who knows what horrors might lie at the bottom of pile #2? This … Continue reading →